Is Jon Rahm's Ryder Cup Future in Jeopardy?

Jon Rahm is going into hibernation. Following his first year without an individual tournament win since 2016, Rahm told Ten-Golf at the Spanish Open that he won’t tee it up again until LIV’s season-opening event. That means he will be gone from tour (or league?) golf for four months, reemerging in Riyadh, as one does, the first week of February.

It’s not the worst time to take a four-month break for a professional golfer. Prime competitive opportunities are few and far between – a handful of other top pros will play silly season events, some world golf, make SoFi Center appearances, and start new seasons on the West Coast or in the Middle East. But Rahm’s declaration does mean he will miss the season-ending DP World Tour Playoffs in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Many of his Ryder Cup teammates, including LIV’s Tyrrell Hatton, will be playing one or both of those tournaments next month.

Rahm has stated he wants to continue to support the DP World Tour, but it is here where the rubber may meet the road soon. The current state: 1) Rahm has maintained his steadfast position of not paying fines incurred for his participation in LIV events. 2) An arbitration panel in London is expected to uphold the DPWT fines and suspensions for players jumping to LIV, as it has done in a prior instance in 2023 when confronting this dispute with the first wave of defections (with the Rahm arbitration still pending, 2025 at Bethpage came into focus). 3) The DP World Tour has indicated a reasonable unwillingness to change the rules that it has gone to court to defend, and it has won in those courts. If these three positions remain, we’d likely enter a world where Jon Rahm would not play in the 2027 Ryder Cup.

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Now you, like me, may first scoff at such a hyperbolic hypothetical. Rahm himself said he had forgotten about the impending arbitration ruling, the entire possibility on the back burner even for the subject himself. Such a dire circumstance should not come to fruition at Adare Manor in 2027. But the wheels to avoid it need to be put in motion now. Who or what will give? Does Rahm think his refusal to pay the fines and put his Ryder Cup status in jeopardy might force the DPWT to break with its previous position vis-à-vis other players and its PGA Tour strategic alliance? His initial defection to LIV was likely done in part to hasten the consummation of the Framework Agreement, and we’ve seen how that worked out. Reversing precedent and creating a mess with the original European Ryder Cup outcasts seems unlikely. Perhaps the thought of a Rahm-less Ryder Cup might push the DPWT to change course in a way Ponte Vedra and LIV negotiations have not. This is far-fetched when the DPWT has gone to court to uphold its rules. They are standing on firm ground already, and the arbitration ruling, if it goes the way as expected, will only strengthen it. The search for the next loophole, however, could commence tomorrow. Or perhaps the DPWT may take past flirtations with Yasir Al-Rumayyan and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to the next level if the PGA Tour continues to refuse to engage.

Will Rahm suddenly acquiesce and start paying fines? LIV, where he will undoubtedly continue to play in the coming year, has said it will stop offering to cover that tab in 2026 – offering the keyword because Rahm reportedly didn’t even want them paying on his behalf, either. Sergio Garcia, after also refusing to pay his fines in 2023, did make a late plea to make things square and become eligible for the Ryder Cup. So Rahm’s position could be fluid, as well.

As argued on the latest Shotgun Start episode, Rahm was Europe’s most important player at this year’s Ryder Cup both for what he did on the course and sacrificed off of it. He perfectly represents the ideal of what has made Ryder Cup Europe (not the DPWT) so successful. Of course he should be involved with the 2027 team if he’s healthy and able. It’s a bummer he’s simply going away for the next four months and absent from so many high-profile events already. It feels premature to be raising alarms about this with echoes of Don Rea’s karaoke still ringing and Adare so far away. But the road to losing sense and sensibility is often paved when sides believing themselves to be in the right have dug in over time.